An extract from Malgorzata Lebda’s ‘Mer de Glace’, our Book of the Month for October. 

S E A S O N A L  P L O T S ( I V )

A shade, rather, sometimes gold, sometimes copper; autumn; the trim-

ming of the hair; the going up to strangers; the listening to strangers;

the withdrawing from strangers; básně; wild rice; turmeric, ginger;

the reading, reading, reading of some poems, out loud; bustle; muscle

work; work of the imagination; chestnut blight; the city’s stuffiness;

Georgian khinkali; the master and the master’s master – the dachshund;

Olga Hepnarová; work; the sanctity of work; the curse of work; the cat

roaming the stairwell at night, the cat’s colour: ginger; dreams; the tak-

ing of sleep away from poems; the alchemy of wine (smoke, caramel);

the Japanese ginko; melancholy; ah, melancholy; honey; coffee; dark

chocolate; the exploitation of Ghana; weakness; magnesium; okay; fair

trade; that’s right; the not writing of poems; the perusing of words: con-

traband, cadmium.

S E A S O N A L  P L O T S ( V )

Palladium of air; pre-winter air; guests and being a guest; the forest that

goes down to the lake, the lake that comes up to the neck; the setter; the

higher register; the reading, reading, reading of some poems, out loud;

work (because it never ends); a test of tender; a test of tone; the tracking

of the light; a new name I receive that calls to me: hey there, Moon – the

sound of being addressed in such a different way: hey, Moon, head high.

*

‘Mer de Glace’, written by Malgorzata Lebda and translated by Mira Rosenthal, is out now and available here, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (£12.34).